Xinhua News Agency reporter Feng Yuan
In the world of dinosaurs, the tyrannosaurus rex has always been a "big star" in film and television dramas because of its mighty and domineering. The paleontological research team at the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History has identified a new genus and species of tyrannosaur-like dinosaurs through fossil research. It was also the first deep-snouted tyrannosaur dinosaur found in the southeastern part of the continent. The relevant academic papers have been published online in the international journal "Scientific Reports" at 23 o'clock on the 25th Beijing time.
The picture shows the restoration of the Asiatic tyrannosaurus rex of Xu's family. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
The above study was jointly completed by four paleontological researchers from Zhejiang Natural Museum, Zheng Wenjie, Jin Xingsheng, Xie Junfang and Du Tianming. The team named this new species of dinosaur "Tyrannosaurus rex Xu's" as a tribute to Xu Xing, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who has long been committed to dinosaur research and has long supported the academic and popular science work of the Zhejiang Natural Museum.
The picture shows a photo of the fossil skull of the Tyrannosaurus x's Asia. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
Zheng Wenjie, deputy director and research librarian of the Earth Science Department of the Zhejiang Natural Museum, said that the life age of Xu's Asian tyrannosaurus was the end of the Cretaceous period. This period is between 72 million and 66 million years old. Its fossil specimens preserve a near-intact skull as well as post-cephalic bones such as caudal vertebrae and hind limbs. It belongs to the most progressive Tyrannosaurus subfamily of the Tyrannosauridae family, and is closely related to Tyrannosaurus rex and Tyrannosaurus rex.
Reconstruction of the head of the Tsui Asian Tyrannosaurus. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
Zheng Wenjie told reporters that tyrannosaur dinosaurs are a big family and are classified as Tyrannosaurus superfamily. Tyrannosaurus rexes first appeared in the Middle Jurassic period, about 165 million years ago, and became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. And the Tyrannosaurus dinosaurs of the Tyrannosauridae superfamily, for the last 20 million years of the Dinosaur Age, have been apex predators in Asia and North America. The Tyrannosaurus subfamily belongs to the Tyrannosauridae.
Reconstruction of the head of three types of Tyrannosaurus rex (A), Asiatic Tyrannosaurus (B) and Qianzhou (C). The first two are of the deep-snouted type, and the Qianzhou dragon is of the long-snouted type. (Photo provided by the interviewee)
Many people have the impression that Tyrannosaurus rex had a huge head. Zheng Wenjie said that according to the characteristics of the snout, there are also two types of Tyrannosaurus heads. The skulls of most Tyrannosauridae dinosaurs are deep-snouted, with relatively short skulls anterior and posterior, and a higher distance between the upper and lower jaws, which looks a bit "square", like the skulls of Tyrannosaurus rex and Tyrannosaurus rex. The skull of the Asiatic tyrannosaurus rex is 47.5 cm long and is also of the deep-snout type. Another part of the Tyrannosauridae dinosaurs had long snouts with a narrow snout. Such dinosaurs are again classified as cladenosaurs.
In the Gobi region of central Asia, scientists have discovered a deep-snouted tyrannosaurus and a long-snouted branched rex that lived at the same time. The former is larger, and the two may be in different ecological niches. In the southeastern part of the continent, the size of the two types of tyrannosaurs is quite opposite. Living in the same era as the deep-snouted Xu's Asian tyrannosaurus, there is also the long-snouted Qianzhou dragon. Zheng Wenjie said that the Qianzhou dragon is larger, and it is estimated that the body length can reach about 9 meters. Although the Atyrannosaurus rex discovered this time was a juvenile dinosaur, it had passed the fastest growth period, and it was a sub-adult individual, with only about half the body length of Qianzhousaurus. They may also be in different ecological niches and employ different predation strategies to avoid direct competition.